Apparatus for scanning a bar code, or bar code scanners, are being used on increasingly larger scale in Western Europe and the United States in supermarkets and the like. These are usually scanners disposed in a fixed horizontal or vertical position along which an article purchased by the customer must be moved. Such known scanners are usually built in, which is time-consuming and cost-intensive. These bar code scanners also have the defect that particular articles often have to be moved repeatedly past a window thereof due to an insufficiently accurate operation. This frequently results in damage to this window.
Such a known scanner is disclosed in European patent application EPA 0224996 which has the above disadvantages inherently related with the built in scanner.
Such a built-in scanner is also disclosed in WO 89/05013 which discloses a scanner apparatus having twelve fixed mirror for obtaining pairs of parallel lines in six scanning directions. This arrangement is bulky and is only suited for mounting in a check out counter.